Mostly Asked Information Technology Analyst Interview Preparation Guide

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An activity performed by a user which in turn causes system failure. It may be a malicious activity. As it is misguiding the system function flow, it is termed as misuse case.

As a Business Analyst we deal with various documents like Functional Specification document, Technical Specification document, Business requirement document, Use case diagram, Requirement Traceability Matrix etc.

The process performed by a BA is termed as Business Analysis. The tools used by a BA are Rational tools, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Power Point, MS Project, ERP systems.

Today’s tech workers can’t be lone wolves. They have to discuss changes with teammates, coordinate with other departments, advocate for platforms they prefer and much more. While not everyone has to love public speaking, your new hire should be able to conduct research, put together a solid presentation and persuade stakeholders why X is better than Y.

The answer can clue you in to a candidate’s personality trait that may not be readily apparent through their resume or traditional interview questions. It also gives insight into how the individual perceives themselves and the role they’re applying for. For example, if their answer focuses on their creative side but the position is very analytical in nature, the job may not be a good fit.

Always be on the lookout for leaders, even when you’re not hiring for a management position. The nature of IT work means individuals will frequently have to take responsibility for delivering projects, and this requires leadership skills such as organization, motivation, positivity, delegation and communication.

The process of measuring the quality of policies, programs, products, rules and other measures of an organization against the standard measures or against the other companies is termed as Benchmarking. This is used to the measure the performance of a company to compete in the industry.

The main purpose of benchmarking is to find out the areas of improvement in a company and to analyze how the neighbor companies are achieving their goals.

i) A Business Analyst is not intended to organize the project team meetings.

ii) A Business Analyst should not bother regarding the risks and issues tracker of a project.

iii) A Business Analyst should not perform activities like testing (executing the TC’s), coding or programming.

Most IT teams have adopted some form of Agile — currently the favored SDLC methodology — which means lots of quick meetings and a steady stream of feedback from fellow team members. A candidate’s answer to this question can tell you not only their level of understanding of this popular environment, but also their attitudes toward collaboration and communication.

Many candidates seek workplace benefits such as telecommuting, flextime and a BYOD (bring your own device) policy. Asking this interview question serves as a reminder to candidates that the company offers such perks. It’s also a good way of identifying those who might not be a good fit — that is, if your company has a flexible work environment.

INVEST means Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized Appropriately, Testable. With this INVEST process, the project managers and technical teams are able to deliver the good quality of the product and can provide quality service.

Fish model consumes more time in dealing with requirements when compared to V model. Even Fish model is a bit expensive than V model. Generally, a Fish model is preferred when there are no uncertainties in the requirements.

Individuals who truly want the job will have done their research and be able to talk about your company’s values, products and services, and approach to technology. If they can’t articulate at least a few reasons your company would be a good match for their skills and ambitions, then they haven’t done their due diligence to properly prepared for the interview — an interview red flag for hiring managers.

You want to hire an IT professional who devotes their personal time to side projects. Why? These are people who are driven and curious, which, in turn, keeps their skill set fresh. Ask how they stay motivated, what interests them about the project and what their ultimate goal is. If they can demo a website or app they’ve built, all the better.

IT plays a crucial role in almost every company, so the ability to communicate with non-technical people is a must. You can assess candidates’ communication skills with this interview question. Do they avoid obscure acronyms and jargon? How well can they break down a complicated process? Try asking a few “dumb” follow-up questions to get sense of how they’d interact with non-tech colleagues.

The answer to this interview question depends on the role. A developer, for example, may hope to have developed a small project during that time, while a tech manager may want to have analyzed internal processes. A candidate’s response will give you insights into their overall understanding of the position. If their goals and ambitions don’t match the job description, this may not be the right position for them.

☛ How would you manage frequent changes in user requirements?
☛ How do you persuade a doubtful manager to get on board with your suggestions?
☛ How would you reconcile different opinions on the deployment date of a new program?
☛ What SAP software applications have you used?
☛ What is a DHCP server?
☛ Walk me through the process of analyzing an existing system.
☛ How do you explain user scenarios in a technical document?
☛ What’s the difference between technical and functional requirements? How do you gather each?
☛ How do you perform a software audit on a PC or Mac?
☛ Do you have experience designing a new system with limited resources? If so, how did you do it?
☛ Describe a time when you worked with a team to tackle a tough project. What was your role?
☛ Describe a time when you had to deliver a presentation. How did you explain technical details to a non-technical audience?
☛ Have you ever implemented a cost-reducing system? What was it and how did you come up with the suggestion?

Dealing with difficult stakeholders is a major task for a BA. There are many ways to handle such situations, few important points to be noted among them are listed below.

☛ i) Identify that difficult stakeholder among the group of stakeholders, listen and concentrate on their point of view with patience. Be polite to them and do not close off the conversation immediately with such people.

☛ ii) Generally, a stakeholder will be difficult because they are not comfortable with few things in the project. So listen to them and answer such difficult stakeholders in a diplomatic way.

☛ iii) Find out a way to meet them personally and have a one on one discussion. By this, you can show your commitment towards them.

☛ iv) Try to find out and resolve their motivations like are they worried about the budget of the project or Curious about the project whether it is turning exactly as per their vision etc.

☛ v) Continuously engage such difficult stakeholders and make them understand that their contribution is much value for the project.

‘Risk’ is nothing but a problem or something that can be predicted earlier so that some improvement plans are used to handle them. Whereas an ‘Issue’ means the risk that had happened or occurred.

The role of a BA is not to solve the issue instead should suggest some plans to control the loss/damage caused. And this should be marked as a precautionary measure for other projects.

Example: On some roads, there are few caution boards stating that “Road under repair, take diversion”. This is called as Risk.

If we travel through the same route which is under repair, then there caused some damage to the vehicle. This is called as an issue.

This is a logical question asked in an interview. As a BA, first I’ll get signed a document by the user which states that after a point of time no changes to the requirements are accepted.

In few cases, if the changes to the requirements are accepted then as a BA,

☛ i) Firstly I’ll note down the changes made to the requirements and will prioritize them.

☛ ii) Will also go through those changes and find out the impact of them on the project.

☛ iii) Will calculate the cost, timeline, and resources required to cover the impact of change requirements in the project.

☛ iv) And will make sure that whether those changes affect or create gaps to functional design documents, testing or coding.

Everyone deals with professional setbacks at some point in their career. What you want to know is how people handled — and what they learned from — those situations. The best employees are resilient, using setbacks as a springboard toward positive changes. So listen to not only the problem they mention, but also what they did after the disappointment.

A question like this can reveal how the interviewee feels about the position and what they think they would bring to it. Some people may focus on IT certifications and technical abilities, while others may talk more about problem solving, attention to detail, communication and other general job skills. Look for candidates who give a nice balance of both.

Requirements are considered as complete when they satisfy the below criteria

i) Requirements should be aligned with the objectives of a business. It means that the views of business stakeholders should align with the needs to be built for the project.

ii) All the possible views and ideas of key stakeholders are to be extracted.

iii) A quality of the requirements should meet/satisfy the organization’s set of criteria’s through which the quality of the requirements is tested.

iv) One can say that the requirements are complete when they could be done with in the possible available resources.

v) All the stakeholders of the project should be in consent with the gathered requirements.

The features and standards of a good requirement can be pointed out using a rule called SMART rule.

Specific – The description of a requirement should be perfect and specific enough to understand it.

Measurable – There are various parameters through which the requirement’s success can be measured.

Attainable – Resources should be able to achieve success with the requirement.

Relevant – States that what results are realistically achieved.

Timely – Requirements of a project should be revealed in time.

A Business Analyst plays a vital role in a project for an organization.

☛ i) The main role of a Business Analyst is to find out the needs of an organization, finding out their problems, even predicting the future issues to an extent and suggesting the suitable solutions for the same and drive through the organization’s achievements.

☛ ii) Business Analyst role varies from organization to organization, project to project and even from domain to domain.

☛ iii) BA in a project can play the role of a Business Planner, System Analyst, Data Analyst, Organization Analyst, Application Designer, Subject Area Expert, Technical Architect etc.

☛ iv) Core skills of a BA are a good grip on system engineering concepts, leadership qualities, technical knowledge, writing and verbal communications.

☛ v) BA’s job may vary as per the employer’s requirement like some are limited to IT projects, even few of them extend their responsibilities to areas such as finance, marketing, accounting etc.